


Then Hold My Hand

by RebelDrFerguson



Category: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Justice League - All Media Types
Genre: Cave, Cute Ending, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mild Brufred, Nightmares, Swearing, Trapped!Scared!Bruce, fear of the dark, hand holding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-04
Updated: 2017-11-04
Packaged: 2019-01-29 13:23:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12631908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RebelDrFerguson/pseuds/RebelDrFerguson
Summary: Diana and her mother agree they need to find a relic they buried in an old cave to help fight off the hordes of Parademons that were slowly making there way into Earth. Unsure what route they were supposed to take due to the complex systems the ancients used, Batman, Flash, and Wonder Woman along with Queen Hippolyta, her guard and Alfred must search the caverns.Prompt: Can you write a Trapped!Scared!Bruce fic, maybe something to do with the nightmare from BvS something where he panics and Alfred has to comfort him?





	Then Hold My Hand

**Author's Note:**

> This is more fluffy stuff than slash tbh, can be seen as slash or father-son I guess. I live for a needy Bruce in want of his Alfie. Characters probs a bit OC.
> 
> Song I was listening to: Nightmares by All Time Low

The natural light was fading now. The holes in the roof of the cavern were far and few between as they made their steady way down the sloped pathways. 

 

The Queen had insisted they search for that darn relic. Diana had agreed, so here they were, at least a hundred feet underground so far following Hippolyta’s lead towards the cavernous rooms she's recalled they’d mapped. 

 

Above them, armies of Amazonians were rushing about building up the equipment and stores for the hordes of Parademons that were heading there way. 

 

“How much further?” Bruce asked voice low and concerned as the light began to fade and their torches became their only source to see by. 

 

“The first room is just ahead, there are five further down” Diana whispered back as her mother turned into the first cave followed by her three guards. Bruce paused at the doorway letting Barry slip past him and tried not to show too much knowledge of the comforting pat on his back that he knew was Alfred. 

 

Bruce had at first told Alfred it was unsafe for him to take the trek but the older insisted he made himself useful whilst he was here before he returned with the plane back to Gotham. 

 

Now, this far down and with the light disappearing, knowing they had so much further to search, Bruce was silently thankful the Butler had come with them. He would have found it so much harder to be brave if he was alone in the dark. 

 

Hippolyta returned a good few minutes later shaking her head and waving them onto the next cave. Here the walls were closing in, the paving stones had given way to dirt and it made slower going. 

 

When the second cavern was searched and the relic still not found Bruce felt a thread of panic creeping up his spine, they crossed over into a huge open side of the cave now, the pathways hovering over a roaring underground stream and the stalactites hung above them huge, heavy and angry looking.

  
  


Bruce whipped around with a gasp at the sound of squeaks. Eyes searching the cavern's ceiling. 

  
  


“Bruce, what’s wrong?”

 

His head snapped back down to Alfred’s concerned face only half lit by the guard's torch behind him. 

 

Realising the search party had paused he gulped and turned back to continue walking. 

 

“Nothing, it was nothing”

 

Diana gave him a worried look and he was sure she was about to suggest that the guard lead Bruce and Alfred out until her mother called from ahead that they had found the third cavern. 

  
  


But again they left empty-handed and Bruce was now fighting down the waves of nausea and terror that threatened to break his cool exterior. He could tell Barry was no longer comfortable the lower they went and envied the way Diana was holding onto the youngster's arm in support. There was no way to get out quickly from here so they had no choice but the continue on, as there was a faster exit on the other side.  

 

As they paused at the fork in the road, they broke into two groups. Diana, Barry and two guards went down one side and Bruce, Alfred, Hippolyta and the other guard when down the other to search for the right path. 

 

It was black down here. So dark, that the guard's torch in front wasn’t cutting the gloom as easy as before.

 

The sound of heavy beating wings made Bruce jump and he spun around to look back the way they came. He’d ushered Alfred in front of him as so to prevent him from falling as the ground became more unstable but a part of Bruce was regretting that decision now he had nothing to guard his back. 

 

He’d frozen to the spot for good minute staring out into the dark as the team moved on, the little light disappearing around a corner and he was plunged into the black.

 

His mouth was drying up as he stumbled back into the wall his heart hammering in his chest and felt himself starting to shiver in the cold. He should move, he knew the group were only ahead of him but as he turned to look back the opposite way he could no longer make out the walls or the floor let alone his hands. He shuffled along with his back against the wall hoping to glimpse the light but after ten or so steps he heard the sound again and his bravery fled completely. 

 

The images of that giant bat from his recent nightmares flashed before his eyes and he gulped down to fight back the whimper that bubbled up into his throat. 

 

Diana had mentioned ghosts, another side of this cavern had been used as a graveyard and the idea of skeletons had Bruce’s brain going into overdrive at the idea something was waiting to get him. 

 

A scatter of rubble echoed up the cavern and Bruce whip his head left to right trying to discern where it came from fumbling at his belt for his batarangs. 

 

A flap of wings and something large hit his chest.

 

He jumped with a scream swiping at himself and the air as something rushed past him. The feeling of claws and wings had him in shock and his brain barely registered the warmth seeping into his boxers.

 

That had to have been a bat. 

 

The longer he stood alone in the dark with the sounds of the water in the back, the more his brain tried to convince him there were more bats hiding this corridor. That, the giant bat from his dream was coming after him. 

 

He inched along the wall the way he could recall the team going before more sounds of movement caught his ears and he realised he was full blow panicking. He wanted to call for help, to shout for Alfred but he feared to give away that he was here, he didn't wish for whatever was making those noises to find him. 

 

Sinking to the floor he curled in on himself, trying to remind himself they’d eventually notice he was gone and head back, Alfred was not an idiot and by now he was sure the Butler had seen him missing.

 

But as the seconds ticked by, became minutes and the dark began to play games with his mind, he began to wonder if Hippolyta had led them out of the cave. 

 

A sharp scrape echoed from his left and the voice of women called out through the black of both the cave and his mind. 

 

The Queen. Had the Queen just shouted his name? 

 

The next sound was bordering a screech on his other side and Bruce curled further into himself unable to separate his nightmares from the dark. He was sick of this fear. He was sick of being scared of the dark. 

 

He was forty years old for Christ's sake why did his heart continue to play to the tune of that eight-year-old boy who’d awake screaming for his guardian because the man was back, the hooded figure that murdered his parents was in his room. 

 

“Bruce?!” Alfred’s voice echoed out in the cave and then a few seconds after was Diana’s. 

 

The sounds of heavy footsteps were distorted in this tight corridor and Bruce was left to stare into the dark in the direction he prayed his friends were coming from. 

 

Ever so slowly the dark faded, a glimmer of light on the wall had him scrambling to his feet to stumble back unsure of it, it wasn’t the light of the fire at all. 

 

Squirting as the light turned on him he cowered until he heard a deep sigh and Alfred’s voice. 

 

“Bruce!”

 

Looking up he saw Alfred come back into view holding a small battery torch and Bruce bit down on his lip to smother the sob that wanted to escape. 

 

“Bruce?”

 

“I’m still having nightmares” Bruce whispered his voice trembling as the older stopped beside him

 

He never needs to say more, Alfred knew those words, those dreams, he knew those nights all too well. 

 

Alfred pulled him hard by the cuff of his gloves into his arms and Bruce buried his face into the Butler’s overcoat as lips met his jaw.

 

“Why the hell didn't you say something?” Alfred sighed clutching the trembling vigilante to his chest. He thought the damn things had passed long ago. 

 

“I-”

 

Bruce’s throat clamped up as the tears started and he was unaware of the light that was now filling the corridor. Alfred glanced up to see The Queen standing behind him, Diana behind her holding a torch. 

 

“Let’s get you out of here hm? We found the relic we can leave” Alfred offered as Bruce leant back slightly to see the Queen watching them with one of the most motherly concerned looks he’d seen in a long time and it actually made him smile slightly as she reached out to stroke his arm. 

 

He was shaking so badly he knew that even the guards, Barry and Diana could see he’d broken down in the dark. 

 

But they both just looked as worried as Hippolyta, hell he’d expected surprise or even disgust but something in Barry’s eyes told Bruce that he wasn't the only one who was afraid. Diana still had hold of the younger’s hand and Bruce felt himself calming as Alfred took his gloved one and they started back out of the cavern. 

 

As they walked Diana explained the two routes eventually merged at the bottom by the last room and due to the dark they literally hadn't realised Bruce was gone until they had both run into each other and then turned back to run up the route to find him when Alfred had mentioned Bruce had never dealt with the dark very well. 

 

He was slightly comforted by one of the guards comments about not liking the caverns due to the graveyard, the only reason held agreed to enter was due to his queen, and knowing a man his size had felt safer just by the fact he had the smaller more skilled warrior beside him made Bruce feel just a little less stupid at having a panic attack in the dark. 

  
  


When they exited the cave, Diana took Barry to get cleaned up and deliver the artefact, while Alfred and Bruce followed the Guards back to where they had left the plane. Bruce hadn’t dare let Alfred's hand go even out of the cave and felt better that the older hadn’t even suggested he do so. 

 

The Guard explained he would return to gather them for dinner in a few hours. 

 

“Let’s get you out that lot shall we?” Alfred smiled dumping his coat on one of the chairs and reached up to pull off the cowl.

 

Bruce partially turned away as now that he was calmer he could feel the wet cotton of his boxers beneath the suit. But with a glance down he realised Alfred had probably already known. 

 

So he said nothing as Alfred set about stripping him from the bat-suit, gloves, cowl, boots. As he was peeled out of the tight fitting leather he tried not to look at the older man when he realised with burning embarrassment that his boxers were just as soaked as the night after his parents had died and he awoke to the echo of gunshots. 

 

But yet Alfred didn't comment, just reached out for them and Bruce passed them over as he climbed into the small shower cubicle. 

 

Clean, dry and in fresh clothes Bruce sat in his chair holding a cup of tea, he tried to explain to Alfred when the nightmares had come back. 

 

“It's stupid, but it always starts in the damn tomb”

 

“Everyone fears death up to a point Bruce, that night was traumatizing for you, the odds of the memory fading completely were slim to none...I can’t say I’m sure where this giant bat has come from, but you’ve never liked the creatures so it’s typical your brain has morphed it into something more sinister” Alfred explained. “Diana explained there were bats in the cavern, but they were fruit bats, fox bats, utterly harmless things” 

 

“One ran into me” Bruce admitted knowing that had been what broke the last of his nerves. 

 

Alfred’s eyes went wide with realization. 

 

“Ah, now I see why you were so scared, I was confused as to why just being alone in the dark would cause you to panic so much when you go out at night, but I guess the dark doesn't mix well with the memory of the nightmares that it evokes when the one thing you're afraid of runs into you as well…you had every right to be scared”

 

They stood as Alfred spotted the guard outside the plane collecting them for dinner. 

 

“I’m forty years old Alfred, I should be scared of the fucking dark” Bruce huffed angrily at himself, still badly shaken. 

 

Alfred sighed as he pulled on his jacket. “The Bat is forty years old...and he isn't afraid of the dark. But Bruce Wayne, who is currently standing right here” Alfred held out his hand and smiled as Bruce reached out for it without hesitation and brought it took his lips pressing a kiss to the knuckles.

 

“Is still eight years young, still allowed to be afraid of his ghosts and will never be too old to hold my hand when they get too close” 

 

As they walked hand in hand behind the guard, Bruce noticed night had fallen. 

 

The Bat smiled up to the sky admiring the stars and Bruce just held tighter to Alfred’s hand. It took more than a cape and cowl to fight ghosts. 

Sometimes it took another heart to share the burden, a hand to remind you, you weren't alone in the dark and the warm body of someone you loved in your bed before you were brave enough to admit that some fears just weren’t worth trying to fight alone.


End file.
